Hope Gap (2019)

A petit-bourgeois British couple splits after 29 years of marriage. 

 

The husband (Bill Nighy) knows not to argue with his wife (Annette Bening). He goes along with whatever she says, but that just makes her more angry, even a little violent.

The husband's a teacher, the wife a dilettante gathering poems in a file. They live in a pretty nice place on the coast.

I thought it’d be like all those other movies about a wife whose husband dumps her for a sleeker model. It was a little like them in that Annette Bening's character feels terribly wronged and is oblivious to anything she might possibly have done wrong. Like slapping him.

The guy seems pretty old, but he can work Wikipedia and knew how to change his cell phone number.

Directed by William Nicholson, based on his play about his parents’ divorce when he was in his late 20’s. The movie focuses more than you'd expect on the son (Josh O'Connor) who's not as helpful as he thinks.

Some critics seemed to attack it for being just a regular divorce with no crazy plot twists. The British complained about Annette Bening’s inconsistent English accent. I didn’t notice it.